Today's Events 

  

Appropriations Work to Begin With Top-Line Spending Still in Question. Congressional appropriators in both chambers will start work on spending plans for fiscal 2014 in the coming week with no agreement on the basic top-line funding figure for the federal government. Lawmakers may not decide until this summer how much discretionary spending to allow in fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. Current law dictates a sharp reduction to about $966 billion from about $984 billion in fiscal 2013 due to the sequester. Democrats will push to increase that cap to $1.058 trillion during the next major budget negotiation, expected to happen in the summer as part of a needed increase in the federal debt limit. Congressional Quarterly

 

Tough Budgeting Places National Weather Service in an Uneasy Orbit. Almost a year after Congress learned of a budget scandal at the National Weather Service, lawmakers are still trying to get a realistic estimate of what it costs to run the nation's first line of defense against the effects of hurricanes, tornadoes and winter storms. The National Weather Service has struggled in recent years to find money to operate a nationwide network of forecasting offices while also adding new technology intended to improve predictions. That's raised doubts about the reliability of a program that produces about 1.5 million forecasts and 50,000 warnings a year, aiding citizens who may be in the path of dangerous storms, farmers trying to protect crops and airlines planning their daily schedules. Roll Call

  

 As Globe Warms, Is an Arctic Fisheries Boom on the Way? As scientists from around the state and country gathered to discuss Arctic shift last week, it became clear that more questions than conclusions are available about Arctic fish populations-and where the warm winds of change will take them. Sea ice is at a record low, ocean acidification is on the rise, an undulating Arctic weather system is pushing extreme weather around the globe, and marine life populations from algae blooms to polar bears are in major flux. Alaska Dispatch

  

Gazprom Neft, Shell to Team up on Shale Oil, Arctic. The deals underscore the Kremlin's drive to open up access to Russia's trove of hard-to-recover energy reserves to international energy firms with the expertise needed to secure its position as leading global oil and gas producer. Gazprom Neft and Royal Dutch Shell declined to comment. The Kremlin also confirmed on Thursday plans announced earlier by Gazprom and Dutch natural gas firm Gasunie to sign an agreement to expand the Russian export monopoly's supply network to western Europe. Reuters

 

Symposium Highlights Need for Cohesive Arctic Management. While a recent Alaska Sea Grant conference focused on changes in Alaska's Arctic marine life, many of its speakers highlighted a growing need for an Arctic management framework that can better cope with rapid development and climate changes. That included U.S. Arctic Research Commission Chair Fran Ulmer, who attended the full week of the Lowell Wakefield Fisheries Symposium: Responses of Arctic Marine Ecosystems to Climate Change. The Bristol Bay Times

 

Sweden, Finland in Grip of Lingering Ice on the Baltic Sea: 5 Icebreakers Deployed. Never before has so much ice built up so late in the year on the Baltic Sea and in the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland-and records have been kept for 50 years. "We have never seen anything like this," says icebreaking manager Ulf Gulldne, to a Swedish newspaper. A stubborn area of high pressure camped over Scandinavia has contributed to freezing temperatures late in the winter and to the new record. Alaska Dispatch

 

 Caribou Bones Reveal New Arctic Habitats. In the dry and frigid Arctic, caribou antlers and skeletons survive on the landscape for thousands of years. For the first time, researchers are using these bones to track caribou behavior in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Both male and female caribou shed antlers, but only females shed them within a few days of giving birth. Researchers found a surprising number of antlers and newborn skeletons on river terraces in the Porcupine caribou herd's calving grounds was thought to be the most popular calving turf. Live Science